Gambling in Dodge City

[Detector]

Mike, can you give me a model example of a city with not 1 but 2 packinghouses that gambling ruined? I think thats the point most are trying to make. While what you're saying does ring true our situation does not fit the model.

Our 2 packinghouses coupled with the city's apparent eagerness to turn Dodge City into an immigrant town has left us little direction but up.

Gambling is driven by and subsists on greed. For this reason, the activity is morally bankrupt from its very foundation. Gambling is also an activity which exploits the vulnerable — the young, the old, and those susceptible to addictive behaviors. Further, gambling entices the financially disadvantaged classes with the unrealistic hope of escape from poverty through instant riches, thus ultimately worsening the plight of our poorest citizens. Also, gambling undermines the work ethic. It is based on the premise of something for nothing, a concept that sanctions idleness rather than industriousness, slothfulness instead of initiative.

So what makes the lottery any different? I see the same people hoping for escape from poverty everyday spending $$$ on lottery tickets. I'm guessing the same people that would be vulnerable to a casino are vulnerable to the lottery. I see the bus load up with residents taking their addiction and $$$'s to another state.

Our residents have gambling now the only difference would be part of their money would stay here, and we would see the buses coming instead of going. It would also give tourism the shot in the arm its needed for a long time. Even if we never saw a penny out of the casino reviving tourism would make it worth it.

Lurker, see my above statement. We don't expect to make $$$ directly from a casino but from a boost in visitors and new business putting $$$ into our economy. What mess? we already have the mess and no benefits. I think new business would not only bring $$$'s but clean this town up. Take for example the rumor that a place like Gillie's would be interested in setting up a shop in Dodge City. The people that would come not even interested in gambling would be huge. Not to mention these businesses aren't known for selling out or catering to immigrants. Who knows, it could just start a new fad for our local sellouts.

To be honest I'm really surprised we haven't seen our local shops supporting signs saying they accept pesos.

[K C Muffin]

Since I'm not a resident and have no voting privileges there, I feel a little safer offering an opinion - kinda take it for what it's worth kinda thing. I think it ought to start small and maybe be part of the Boot Hill complex. Not a stand-alone facility. For one thing, you can't afford another entity going broke and leaving a good building empty. If a smaller facility were added to Boot Hill, then tourists visiting Boot Hill could get a flavor of the old west with all the table games that go with it. If it goes over well, then build another facility to house it. Just my opinion.

[aft_lizard01]

I have to tell you I think having a destination casino in Dodge would not be a bad I idea. Dodge City has been losing homegrown people for years and replacing them with illegals and receiving not only a local reputation but a national reputations as being not only a hotbed of illegal immigration but for gang crime. I mean they ran a news segment down here in Arizona about Dodge Citys crime problem, and its bad that on a per capita basis Dodge challenges LA for per capita gang membership.

A casino can help draw legal people and possibly keep local kids around, it certainly can help tourism. With the SEC looking for an anchor client t o help it, well a Casino certainly would be a great anchor cient if developers were so inclined. More tax revenues(I would assume dodge and the county would get a piece of the gambling pie) the City can build its new jail, hire more cops,help with urban improvement and draw other more diverse businesses. Lets not forget that Mexicans love to gamble, at least they do here in Phoenix, and that would help to stop the outward flow of cash illegals do by sending there money to Mexico.

A casino yes would be a gamble, but honestly you have to roll the dice sometimes otherwise Dodge City could be stuck on stupid while the meatpackers hiring policies suck the cities heritage down the drain.

JMO though.

[Mike B.]

Detector,

I understand your excitment about bus loads of people coming to gamble in our community. That's exactly what they will be doing, gambling. Not out shopping for a new appliance or a new car. They come to gamble. I even doubt they'd take the time to visit Boot Hill. BH does not offer what they want.

Local gamblers, right now, go out of town. Why? Because they can afford to travel. They can even afford to lose. The people who can not afford to lose will be the ones getting hurt. Go talk to the priest at the Catholic church. Numerous wives are now asking for money and other basic needs for themselves and their children. Why? Because Dad lost his pay check gambling illegally. What will happen when gambling becomes legal?

As for the packing houses...well you are correct about the problem that situation has created. Do we want to make it worse? I know for a fact that when Boot Hill gaming approached Cargill for money to support lobbyist, Cargill said NO! They stated their position clearly...why should we support an industry that will leave our employees with out money to pay their bills? That just doesn't apply the the Mexicans but also the whites.

Inviting a casino to town is playing Russian roulette with your friends and neighbors; employees and business partners. At three percent, which is conservative, it would be like giving you a handgun with 400 chambers, and 12 of them are loaded. Are you sure you want to pass that around the tables? Are you willing to pull that trigger?

How many would feel good knowing 12 people in this community would lose everything -- so the rest of us could have a cheap buffet and watch a horse and pony show.

Three percent is not a small number. The Cancer Society and Center for Disease Control say about half of one percent of the population has an active cancer at any given time. A gambling addiction rate of three percent is SIX times the national average for active cancers. Gambling addiction doubles in the market area close to a casino, and it goes up another 70 percent for each step you take toward “disadvantages” like poverty. The poor and the uneducated are far more likely to become addicted.

[Bubba]

That seems odd, all your doom & gloom statistics. Yet the majority of the people that live in Las Vegas, don't gamble. They just work at the casinos, hotels, restaraunts and construction companies building all the new buildings and homes.

[Mike B.]

Detector,

To answer your question, I can not honestly name a city with two packing houses that has been ruined by gambling. But I can show you case after case where gambling has ruined local business, raised taxes and destroyed families.

To be quite honest, society has become so calloused to the suffering of others that we turn and look away. We start pointing at the losers and say they have no-one to blame but themselves.

All that matters is...what will be fun for me! To heck with our community. We no longer care about our nieghbors. As long as I can have MY fun, nothing and no-one else matters.

I believe we have an obligation and responsibility to look honestly at what gambling does to a society.

In 1995, the casinos formed the American Gaming Association. They like the word gaming. It’s deceptive. It sounds like scrabble and football more than it sounds like craps and slots. But they needed something to mask their predatory product. They spent millions trying to spread their empty promises of painless revenue streams and no victims – nothing but fun and games for everyone.

It’s a snake oil remedy that doesn’t work. It’s not gaming, it’s gambling. They keep leaving out the “BL” which stands for “Big Losers,” and they want you to forget that part. They try to call it “economic development,” “Jobs jobs jobs,” “A painless revenue stream.” “Only the willing do it.” “Its entertainment like shopping and the movies.”

Gambling is not good economics. Gambling cannibalizes. It sucks disposable income out of the economy and flushes it down the slots. Gambling promoters need to pick education or some other worthy community cause to buy their way into our communities. They want us to think the money’s not going to the gambling promoters; they want you to think it’s going to the schools.
But come on. It’s still coming from the people.
If it isn’t education, then it’s economic development or some other great deal that they’re going to provide for free. But they never tell you the other side of the story.

[Mike B.]

Bubba,

You are correct. The majority of people that live in Vegas don't gamble.

I have never said the majority do gamble. But the majority do support gambling.

As far as gloom and doom stats.....that's what gambling is.

The gambling industry preys on the losers and the addicts!

[Mike B.]

BTW,

A casino tied in with a SEC, as far as I'm concerned, is a no go.

The WND sales tax was created to boost our local economy by establishing family oriented attractions.

Personally, I see a big conflict with that idea! A casino is not really family oriented. But then again, I'm pretty conservative, so who knows what will happen!?!

[lurker]

Neither the SEC nor the gaming opportunity is 'sustainable' economic development.

The assumption that economic prosperity requires growth seems so reasonable that most of us don't think much about it. After all, it's what we've always been told; politicians, business boosters, economists, and the media all seem to take it for granted. The assumption is so pervasive that virtually every American community is looking for ways to grow out of its economic problems, even when those problems are themselves the result of growth.

The trouble is, the word "growth" has two fundamentally different meanings: "expansion" and "development." Expansion means getting bigger; development means getting better, which may or may not involve expansion. This is no mere semantic distinction. Many communities have wasted a lot of time and energy pursuing expansion because that's what they thought they needed, when what they really needed was development. To avoid confusion, let's define growth here only as getting bigger—expansion—and development as getting better.

Though a sound economy requires development, including vigorous business activity, it doesn't necessarily require expansion of community size. An analogy can be made with the human body. Human growth after maturity is cancer. When a town continues to expand after maturity, its cancer becomes manifest in many ways: spiteful controversy, higher taxes, traffic, sprawl, lost sense of community. Sound familiar? Edit: lurker. How well we know the loss of community..... spiteful controversy, higher taxes; but sprawl isn't seen due to housing consolidation. Translation: packing packinghouse workers into small apartments.

But after reaching physical maturity, humans continue to develop in many beneficial and interesting ways: learning new skills, gaining deeper wisdom, cultivating new relationships, and so on. Similarly, a community can develop itself without necessarily expanding. It can create affordable housing, protect public safety, and improve employment, health, cultural, and educational opportunities. In fact, a good definition of development is the creation of jobs, income, savings, and a stronger community.

This is not to say that all expansion is bad, but it's essential to distinguish it from development in order to make choices that truly benefit the community.

Source: Sustainable Development: Prosperity Without Growth

[Mike B.]

lurker,

I agree!

I also found this. I find it very ironic...



Then casino industry's top gun cries 'NIMBY!'

Fahrenkopf is CEO for the American Gaming Association, and thus stands as the leading national spokesman for commercial casinos.

But would Fahrenkopf want one of his products in his own home town? Here’s his comment:

"People have the right to go to the ballot box and determine what they want the quality of life to be in their own area. Now if someone were to come along and tell me that they were going to put a casino in McLean, Virginia, where I live, I would probably work very very hard against it. I just don’t -- what’s the old saying, ‘NIMBY, not in my back yard?’ Now I may be in favor of gaming, but I just don’t want it located in a particular area." - - AGA CEO Frank Fahrenkopf in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 24, 2006

Mr. Fahrenkopf knows everything there is to know about gambling. I wonder why he says, "not in my back yard" LOL